Alex McLeish will strive to get Aston Villa's defensive bad boys Richard Dunne and James Collins behind him

Jun 26 2011 by Mathew Kendrick, Sunday Mercury

ASTON Villa manager Alex McLeish has underlined the importance of getting bad boys Richard Dunne and James Collins on side as he strives to unite the dressing room.

McLeish appreciates his first task when Villa’s first-team squad reports back for pre-season training in the first week of July is creating a close bond between the players.

The new boss has already starting looking for leaders and has identified the club’s senior defensive duo as key characters despite on and off the field problems last season.

Dunne and Collins were both docked wages after their disciplinary issues culminated in a drunken fracas during a team bonding break at a Leicestershire health spa in March.

Villa’s first choice central defensive pairing of the past two seasons also let their playing standards slip last term as Gerard Houllier’s team became exposed at the back.

The claret and blues conceded 59 Premier League goals last season compared to 39 the year before with their vulnerability to set-pieces proving particularly costly in 2010-11.

But McLeish knows solid old-style stoppers when he sees them having forged his own career in football as a no-nonsense defender with Alex Ferguson’s successful Aberdeen side.

And the Scot will challenge Dunne and Collins to prove they still boast the necessary ingredients that made them such a resolute rearguard unit in their first season at Villa.

“The raw material is there,” said McLeish, who is also looking forward to working with Villa’s other senior centre-halves Carlos Cuellar and Ciaran Clark.

“I have to work with that.

“There’s a few experienced guys there so I shall have to talk to them and see what their thoughts are in terms of what happened last year and what we do this season.